Fiji suspended from Pacific democracy bloc

By ROD McGUIRK, The Associated Press
| 2:27 p.m.May 1, 2009

FILE - In this file photo taken Dec. 6, 2006, Fijian military Commodore Frank Bainimarama speaks at a ceremony at the main military barracks in Suva. Fiji's military ruler defied international pressure to announce elections by Friday, May 1, 2009, confirming that he would not hold them for at least five years and setting the stage for his country's ouster from a South Pacific bloc. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
— AP

FILE - In this file photo taken Dec. 6, 2006, Fijian military Commodore Frank Bainimarama speaks at a ceremony at the main military barracks in Suva. Fiji's military ruler defied international pressure to announce elections by Friday, May 1, 2009, confirming that he would not hold them for at least five years and setting the stage for his country's ouster from a South Pacific bloc. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
/ AP

CANBERRA, Australia 
South Pacific nations announced Saturday that military-ruled Fiji has been suspended from the 16-nation bloc for its rejection of democracy, freedom and human rights.

On Friday, Fiji's military ruler, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, continued to defy international pressure to announce elections, confirming that he would not hold them for at least five years.

That set the stage for his country's ouster from the Pacific Islands Forum, which had given Fiji until Friday to announce elections for 2009.

"A regime which displays such a total disregard for basic human rights, democracy and freedom has no place in the Pacific Islands Forum," said its chairman, Toke Talagi.

The diplomatic and economic bloc stopped short of expelling the military regime, said Talagi, who is also premier of the South Pacific micro state of Niue.

The suspension bars Fiji's leader and officials from taking part in forum events and cuts Fiji out of development funding until a democratic government is restored, Talagi said.

Bainimarama ousted the ethnic Fijian-dominated government in a 2006 coup and installed himself as prime minister. He has vowed to rewrite the constitution and electoral laws to remove what he says is discrimination against the country's large ethnic Indian minority before holding elections. Critics say he shows little sign of being willing to give up power.

"You've got a dictator up there now who doesn't want to listen to anybody else other than himself," New Zealand Prime Minister John Key told Radio Dunedin on Friday.

Key said the Commonwealth could suspend Fiji as well, referring to a group of 53 countries that are mostly former British colonies.

Fiji President Ratu Josefa Iloilo announced in early April that elections would be delayed until 2014. He also suspended the national constitution and fired judges who had declared the military government illegal. Emergency laws were also imposed on the media to curb expressions of dissent.

Bainimarama said Friday that the censorship laws would be extended when they expire later this month.

"We want this calm to continue for a while," he said. "It's irresponsible reporting that undermines" calm.

Bainimarama said within two weeks he would announce a five-year timetable for reforms leading to the 2014 elections.

"We have to get rid of racism in the country in the next five years," he said, referring to long-standing conflicts between indigenous Fijians and ethnic Indians. Bainimarama is an indigenous Fijian.

He also called for Australia and New Zealand to be expelled from the Pacific Islands Forum, saying they were putting undue "pressure on the Pacific Islands and that's not how we operate."

New Zealand Foreign Minister McCully said Thursday that foreign aid to the impoverished country had already slowed, and the European Union had frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to help restructure Fiji's sugar industry, a key export for the severely weakened economy.